Pisgat Ze'ev is one of Israel's 'ring neighbourhoods', separating Palestinian E.Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Settlement watchdog says tenders would not have been published without Netanyahu's approval.

File photo of construction work in the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement in East Jerusalem, as seen from the Anata neighborhood, August 29, 2012. (photo: JC/Activestills.org)

The Israeli government published tenders for 77 new housing units in the settlements of Pisgat Ze’ev and Neve Yaakov in occupied East Jerusalem Monday morning. The tenders follow a six-month gap in published settlement plans for the Palestinian part of Jerusalem.

Pisgat Ze’ev is located near Shuafat and Hizma, and with 50,000 residents is Jerusalem’s largest residential neighborhood. It isserviced by the Jerusalem light rail, which winds through East Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighborhoods before arriving at the settlement. Neve Yaakov is located north of Pisgat Ze’ev, with 30,000 residents.

Both settlements are among Jerusalem’s “ring neighorhoods,” which fan out around the edges of East Jerusalem, sitting between it and the rest of the West Bank. The E1 area, where settlement activity is also underway, is the last remaining corridor through the ring that allows access between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank.

Today’s tenders are significant because they are the first such decision taken by Netanyahu following his election victory, explained Daniel Seidemann of Terrestrial Jerusalem, an Israeli NGO that tracks any developments in the city that may affect the political process. “These tenders could not have been published without the prime minister’s supervision, and represent Netanyahu testing the waters.”

The announcement is also a possible indicator of how settlement activity in East Jerusalem will proceed, Seidemann continued: “Large-scale construction in East Jerusalem has been pretty much exhausted. We’re now likely to see more tenders of this type – tens of units here, tens of units there.”

There is, along with E1, one last large building project in Jerusalem, which Seidemann referred to as a “doomsday settlement.” Givat HaMatos, in south Jerusalem, will cut off East Jerusalem from Bethlehem when completed.